PINE GROVE – Rock Hill’s newest fourth-grade test scores marked such improvement that state officials made an example of the district this summer.

Monday, August 28, 2000

PINE GROVE – Rock Hill’s newest fourth-grade test scores marked such improvement that state officials made an example of the district this summer.

State officials invited district officials to a press conference in June to help announce 1999-2000 school year proficiency scores and discuss how the district improved student skills, said Sam Hall, Rock Hill School District assistant superintendent federal programs coordinator.

"Because of the improvements we made on our fourth-grade proficiency testing, we were chosen by the state to represent the rural Appalachian school districts in making the public notification of the 2000 proficiency test results," Hall said. "We were one of only three schools that were invited to make the announcement."

The district was chosen because it was one of the original 48 intervention districts identified in the early 1990s as a district having difficulty with proficiency testing, Hall said.

"The state requested that we provide insight to other schools on how we were able to make the types of gains we did on the testing," Hall said. "Our proficiency test scores in writing went from 34.3 percent to a 73 percent passage rate. In reading, scores improved from 43.4 percent to 60 percent. Citizenship scores improved from 56.3 percent of 63 percent. Science improved from 43.4 percent to 53 percent and math went from 38.5 percent to 41 percent."

He said that while some areas have shown significant increases, others prove to be less desirable.

"We’re still not happy with our math score," Hall said. "We’ve had several in-services for professional development to achieve the increases we want. That’s been our key to success all along. We will continually work to improve our skills throughout the district until we not only meet but exceed the state requirements."

The state requires school districts to have a 75 percent passage rate in all subjects. Even though Rock Hill is improving, it still needs a little more work, he added.

"All the state requests is a minimum of 2.5 percent increase each year," he said. "When we began forming our Continuous Improvement Plan, we realized that we could not rely on the 2.5 increase to achieve the 75 percent goal. We had to look realistically at the goal and we knew that we couldn’t jump 20 or 30 percent over a one-year period."

So, the district plans to obtain the goal within an eight-year period.

"We will be implementing several reading programs to help improve reading skills of our fourth-grade students," Hall said. "We are right on target with the goals we have set. We have made bigger gains than we thought were possible."

In some cases, teachers have had to leave a comfort zone of teaching they have traditionally felt good about in order to meet the standards that have been set by the state, he said.

"The teachers have done an excellent job at pushing to get the job done," he said. "The achievements we’ve made are not attributed to just the teachers. The cooks provided good, healthy meals the bus drivers brought the students to school in a good frame of mind. It was a team effort."